


The Spider

by Tfandoms



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Muggle, M/M, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 19:06:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12564180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tfandoms/pseuds/Tfandoms
Summary: When Sirius Black finds a spider in his shower, he sees no other option than to call on the help of the one neighbor he doesn't know. But how do you ask a stranger to come into your apartment and rescue you from a arachnid? And how on earth do you get to dates on time?





	The Spider

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this post on Tumblr: http://demineil.tumblr.com/post/110467148603/here-have-some-aus-as-if-there-arent-enough-on  
> Originally posted on my Tumblr: https://lupin-tonks-granger.tumblr.com/

Why did it have to be a spider, the one animal that Sirius hated? Why couldn’t there be a– a cat or something in his shower? Ok, a cat was less realistic, but Sirius could have handled anything  **besides**  a spider. Now what? His roommate, Peter, won’t be back for another four hours at least, and Sirius had a date in half an hour. So admittedly he had started getting ready a bit too late, but he needed that spider out of his shower right now so that he wouldn’t show up to this date all sweaty and dirty. Sirius ran a mental list of all their neighbors: the kind old lady across the hall whose name he didn’t know but who was afraid of any animal to ever exist was a definite no; the guy next door went out only a few minutes ago; and so the only remaining neighbor was the brown-haired guy – the one neighbor Sirius has never talked to. Sirius pulled out his phone to check the time (28 minutes left) but ended up opening the dating app he was using and looking at his date’s picture. Were those cute nose and green eyes worth talking to the neighbor? Maybe not, but Sirius was determined to rise to the challenge.

***

“Hey, I, um, I’m Sirius, I live over there,” Sirius pointed in the general direction of his apartment, “and there’s a huge spider in my shower.”

“I– what?” The neighbor looked like everything he wanted in life was for Sirius to go away.

“I just really have to take a shower, and, uh, I’m scared of spiders, and I was wondering if you could help me…” The more Sirius talked, the stranger the expression on his neighbor’s face became. “What?”

“I’m just– you remind me of someone.”

“No, I don’t, you liar.” Sirius had finally realized why the neighbor looked weird. “You’re trying not to laugh!”

Brown-haired-guy burst into laughter. “Ok, maybe you’re right, but you really do remind me of someone. And don’t worry, I’ll be right over to help with the spider problem, random stranger.”

“I’m not a random stranger! I’ve nodded at you in the elevator, like, three times!” But the door was already shut.

***

The doorbell rang less than a minute after Sirius had returned to his apartment.

“It’s open!”

“Hey, where are you?”

“The bathroom! Our apartments mirror each other, right? So you know where it is? Please come here!”

Sirius’s neighbor appeared in the door opening. “Couldn’t you welcome me into your home like a proper host?”

“Well, no, because I wanted to keep my eyes on this little – sorry, huge – guy. Nothing is worse than seeing a spider except not-seeing a spider that you know is there.”

“True. So, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to kill it, so I brought a box to catch it in.”

“Sure, go ahead. What’s your name, again?”

“’Again’? Pfft. As if you’ve ever known my name. But don’t worry, I didn’t know yours either before today. And it’s Remus, nice to meet you.”

“Hi, Remus.” Sirius couldn’t help but smile. This neighbor was turning out to be quite nice.

Remus approached the shower slowly and opened the shoebox he was holding, and Sirius took that time to look at him. He was good at noticing little details, and liked trying to figure out things about people, although he was usually wrong. Remus’s light-brown hair already had speckles of grey in it, although he couldn’t have been much older than Sirius, who was only 26, and Sirius also noticed that Remus was a few inches taller than him, and that he had a long freckled nose – which was adorable, honestly. But no ridiculous, far-fetched conclusions came to Sirius, as they usually did with new people. Remus wasn’t secretly a French painter, nor was he a spy, and his mother didn’t die an untimely death by poison. But as he moved towards the spider and Sirius noticed his arms and hands, Sirius did have one theory – or more of a wish, really. Maybe, if Sirius’s date today went badly, they could go on a date themselves. Something nagged at the back of Sirius’s brain, but he couldn’t figure out what it was, so he checked his phone instead. 23 minutes left until his date started.

“Aha!” Remus had managed to get the spider to climb into the box, and was now walking slowly and carefully towards the living room.

“Hey, hey! Where are you going with that?” Sirius leaped after him.

“The window, dummy. What did you think I was going to do with this little guy, flush him down the toilet?”

“Oh, right, right, sorry.” Sirius didn’t expect his laugh to be shaky, but it was. “I really, really don’t like spiders, I didn’t want that thing to be anywhere else in my apartment… and you’re wrong.”

“Hmm?” Remus had passed through the living room to the kitchen and was now gently lowering the spider to the windowsill above the sink. He closed the window and turned back to Sirius. “About what?”

“’Little guy’? That spider was huge.”

Remus’s laugh was the best thing Sirius had ever heard. Ok, maybe that was an exaggeration, but Sirius was pretty sure he had never been more attracted to a stranger’s laugh. Was Remus a stranger? Or did they count as friends now? “So, are we friends now?”

“I guess so.”

Sirius hadn’t realized he had spoken out loud, but he decided not to mention just how much Remus took him out of focus. “But?”

“Not ‘but,’ but ‘unless’.”

“Unless what?”

“Unless the only time you ever talk to me is when there’s a spider in your shower.”

Sirius was a natural at social interaction. People liked him, he liked people, he knew how to charm and flirt and whatnot. Being a natural with people and having mastered the art of flirting was how he explained to himself, later, when he could think properly, why he did what he did, and how he found himself kissing Remus. One second, they were both laughing (albeit rather awkwardly, like the new acquaintances that they were), the next second disappeared from his memory completely, and the third his mouth was suddenly pressed against Remus’s. It wasn’t awkward, as first kisses go; in fact, it felt quite natural, although later he couldn’t recall any details.

Sirius pulled back, not because he wanted to stop the kiss but because at this point, if they had stayed like that, their lips would just be resting against each other, not doing anything. Now  **that** would be awkward. In the second between pulling away and leaning forward again, Sirius registered a number of things. The first was that Remus seemed to be enjoying this (at least, that’s what the small part of his face that Sirius could see conveyed). The second was that he had a date later. The third was that the date was fast approaching (he had 21 more minutes, but Sirius didn’t know this). The fourth was that he himself was very much enjoying this. The last thing was that Remus could not have been comfortable, pressed against the kitchen countertop. So when Sirius leaned in towards Remus again, he moved so that both of their sides were leaning against the countertop.

***

Almost a full minute later, Sirius finally came to his senses. Later - much later - they would both be surprised that he had been the first to do so, but apparently people can always surprise you with how sensible they can be (in the right situations, of course). He leaned away for the second time. “I, uh, crap crap crap, I have somewhere to be…” Sirius hastily pulled out his phone, not looking at Remus, and realized that there were less than 20 minutes left. He would have to leave now.

Mentally preparing to physically push Remus out of his apartment, Sirius looked up. Remus looked bewildered, as if he was just now realizing what had happened. Even as Sirius watched, his eyes widened. Before Sirius could do anything, though, Remus snapped out of it on his own. He shook his head, and then: “I actually have to be somewhere too, I almost forgot, shit, I’ll go now, bye, thanks, you’re– you’re welcome, what? I’m– I’m going.”

Even though his speech was, to say the least, disorganized, it was evident that he had reached the conclusion of a complicated thought process, and that had resulted in his eyes widening. Well, it would have been evident to everyone present had they been anyone but Sirius Black. Unfortunately, he was the only one in the room, and so Remus’s great discovery went unnoticed.

***

Twenty-two minutes later Sirius entered the restaurant he and his date had agreed upon. He had considered not going, of course, but in the end decided that it was too late to cancel and that he should at least see who this person was. Maybe Remus would want to pretend that nothing had happened, and then Sirius would be sorry he hadn’t come to meet his date. Afterwards he would think that maybe he had subconsciously figured it out and that’s why he went. Whatever the case, Sirius Black ran into the restaurant two minutes late and asked the first waiter he could find whether anyone was waiting for him.

“Actually, yes.” The waiter pointed in the direction of a corner table hidden almost completely in shadow. Great, so now he can’t see his date from a distance. He wanted to be prepared, not surprised. Taking a big breath that would hopefully disguise the fact that he had just ran three blocks - he couldn’t find a parking spot anywhere - Sirius approached the table.

***

“No.”

The person sitting at the table smirked. “Maybe.”

“Yes!” The sound that came from Sirius’s throat could be described as not-human, but since Sirius Black was an adult male of the Homo-sapiens species, it was, in fact, technically human. Sitting in front of him was Remus Lupin.

***

“You changed your shirt.”

Sirius didn’t know whether to be flattered that Remus noticed or embarrassed that… well, that Remus noticed. “Yep.” But he paid attention to details too. “You didn’t.”

“Some of us were ready on time. I had already showered and changed when you knocked on my door.” The remark was not scornful or accusing but instead self-satisfied in a rather flirty way.

“Wow. So that’s what it’s going to be like?”

“What is?”

“Dating you. I’m going to have to be on time for things?” Here they were momentarily interrupted by a waiter handing them menus, but the short break apparently gave Remus time to come up with the perfect comeback (or maybe he was serious, who knows?):

“Who says we’re dating?”

Sirius decided that maybe he was serious and didn’t want to take the chance that he wasn’t. “Um, well, I just assumed, since– we don’t have to, I mean…”

“I was kidding. And you’re very cute when you’re flustered.”

“Oh, thank god.”

“What, you that much into me?”

“Actually, yes.” For once, Sirius was not sarcastic.

It just so happened that Remus Lupin was very uncomfortable in intimate social situations, and so he decided to change the subject at that exact moment. “So you– you didn’t figure out it was me? From the picture?”

“Nope. I’m assuming you did?”

Smugness was rather attractive on Remus. “I did. Thank god for that spider, or it would have been deathly embarrassing to leave here only to end up at the same building and only then discover we were neighbors.”

“Unless we would have wanted to both end up at the same building.” And I’ll give you this one - the smirk that appeared on his face indeed looked inhuman. “Blushing looks good on you.”

The face across the table from Sirius regained its composure quite quickly. “Actually, I think it would have been even more embarrassing wanting to end up at the same place and then having to explain that you can, in fact, stay, because your apartment is less than fifty meters away.”

Sirius had never expected his date for the night to be so clever or so funny.

 


End file.
